Kingsville has introduced a new False Alarm By-law aimed at reducing the number of unnecessary Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responses caused by repeated at‑fault false security alarms.

The by-law was created at the request of the Kingsville OPP Detachment and encourages responsible alarm system maintenance to ensure police resources remain available for genuine emergencies and potentially provide some future savings on the Town’s OPP contract.

Under By-law 20-2026, each calendar year, commercial, institutional and residential property owners will receive a no-charge warning if a faulty false alarm triggers OPP response. If the faulty alarm triggers another OPP response after the first response, the owner will be fined $150. Every subsequent false alarm within the same year will be charged at $375.

“We just went through our budget process and saw a 17% increase in our OPP contract,” said Mayor Dennis Rogers.

“Forty percent of that contract is calls for service. If you look at at-fault false alarms, that’s about $52,000 of our contract we spent on at-fault alarms. That’s a lot of money. We have to make sure our officers are out in the community and not wasting time on these false alarms.”

Find By-law 20-2026 on the Town’s By-laws page.

~Image by Mike Gosselin